Educational institutions, such as schools and universities, constantly seek ways to leverage technology to effectively educate their students. This includes using technology to create an interactive learning atmosphere where ideas can be shared between students. One way educators do this is by projecting media onto a screen where all of the students can view the media.
However, this can involve setup and limits who can act as a presenter. A student cannot easily share media with the rest of the class. The class often must wait while the student connects their mobile student device (e.g., laptop, tablet, or phone) or transfers files to a projection setup. This can be time consuming and interrupt the learning process.
Some schools have attempted to utilize mobile student devices for portions of the learning experience due to the widespread proliferation of these devices. But mobile devices have also proven to be a distraction in the classroom environment, and in some cases, can be used as a tool for cheating. This is especially the case when students can share information between mobile devices. In some cases, teachers ban mobile devices despite potential efficiency benefits over pen and paper, simply because the potential for distractions and cheating is too high.
Other technical complications also keep educators from relying heavily on student devices during class. For example, although a student can post media online for steaming purposes, it can be cumbersome to do so. Additionally, there can be insufficient Internet bandwidth for all of the students in the classroom to access the same streaming media online. Finally students may navigate away from the online stream and use the Internet in class in distracting ways.
Based on at least these problems with classroom sharing technology, a need exists for systems for classroom media sharing.